02.01 - "Crispy Chicken"
After regrouping at the keep in Greenest, Sir Hector tells the party that he should stay behind and help tend to the wounded. Leaving him there, the party checks the tracks of the raiders and sees that they seem to be leaving out of town to the south, notably with deeper tracks leaving than there were coming. Bismark nods. “Likely zeir vagons vere veighed down from ze loot plunder zat zey took from ze village”. Three and a half miles outside the town they spotted a body off to the side of the road as they were riding. They halted, and Bismark cautiously walked out out to where it was to inspect it. He found the corpse of a villager, hands tied behind her back and throat slit. It was obvious from the look of her that she was a prisoner taken from greenest and that they had taken whatever she had on her at the time. After reporting back to the party, they mounted up and continue heading southward following the trail Further down the trail, faint smoke rose in the distance. The party halted, and sent Gamble and Bismark ahead to scout ahead, which they did flawlessly. Not a sound was heard as they snuck up on the group of 8 kobolds and 3 cultists, who were gathered around a campfire cooking some chicken. Gamble and Bismark both scanned the area, and noticed that the cultists’ weapons had been stacked in a pile. “I’ll keep an eye on these guys, and you go back to the group” Gamble suggested, and after giving Gamble the guidance of Helm, he quietly snuck back to the party. The party group sneaks on the side where the weapons pile was, and prepares to attack, to see the campfire flaring up and a deep voice coming out of it speaking in draconic. The kobolds and cutlists stepped back from the fire, grabbing their weapons. Grabbing a small pouch of sand, Able rubbed some of the sand in his fingers and spoke an incantation, causing a cultist and seven of the kobolds to fall asleep where they stood, dropping to the ground unconscious. The party was then quickly able to dispatch the entire group, save for one kobold, who Bismark tied up while it slept. Along with a few pieces of silver, the party found a bag of the plunder that they had taken from Greenest. Bismark took it in order to return the valuables when they made it back to Greenest. A’postrofae began questioning the lone surviving kobold, which to the rest of the party sounded like a back and forth growling and grunting between the two. When A’postrofae turned and said something to the rest of the party, Leofinas stabbed the kobold in the throat, thinking the interrogation was over. It was not... and A’postrofae would remember this. From the time she did have with the kobold, A'postrofae learned that the main camp with lots of kobolds and their main leaders was about 4 miles away, further south, so they headed back to where they had tied up their horses and headed off searching for the tracks again. Another 4 miles down the trail, the group was ambushed on the road by a group of acolytes, cultists, and a veteran. Blak, wearing cultist robes began shouting “Help me, they’ve taken me prisoner!” which promptly secured him the aid of the enemy... in the form of a crossbow bolt to the leg. Brynne charged off into the woods no her horse, running down a cultist with the horse, while A’postrofae’s anger seethed, and she went feral. She whipped out her claws, stabbing one of the cultists, and then then as his compatriot tried to attack her from behind, she turned and yelled at him in an unknown language in a deep hellish tone, as though she were a woman possessed. As she shouted and pointed to him he burst into flames and died on the spot. She began biting their throats as a third cultist that was with them tried to run off. Seeing him fleeing, she motioned with her hands, and a tangle of wilted plants began rising from the ground, grabbing his feet and legs and holding him fast. Walking over to him as the battle raged on around her, A’postrofae then stabbed him with her claws repeatedly despite his begging pleas for mercy. Meanwhile, in an attempt to take out who he guessed was the leader of the group, Gamble ran the oposite direction, throwing a wild bolt of magical energy at the veteran, which turned to lightning mid-air and then ricocheted off of him into the air, but as he did this, there was a loud popping sound, and suddenly Gamble was gone, leaving a lingering smell of ozone. Seeing his group going down rapidly, the veteran reached for his horn to call for help, but because of the lightning that had just shot through his body, his arm shook as he reached for it, and it dropped out of his hands as he was trying to raise it. Seeing this, Bismark kicked his horse and charged him to prevent reinforcements from arriving. The veteran was able to deflect his attacks, and Bismark dismounted, looking at the veteran and challenging him to personal combat. As he did this, Gamble popped back into existence, wide eyed, confused, and trying to catch his breath. The veteran fought well, but eventually the party knocked him unconscious, and they tied him and the cultist prisoner they had left alive for questioning. The party rounded up the uniforms of those they fought, and noted that they had a lot more black to them than the red that were found in greenest, and the party took robes. They scout ahead and find the raider camp around 2 pm, situated in a horseshoe shaped canyon, with many tent structures and guard towers. Gamble points to one of the cliff faces at a large cave in the cliff wall. After a quick scan of the scene, the scouts made their way quietly back into the woods to figure out their next step and to interrogate the prisoners. 02.01